Sunday, April 23, 2006

My Animation 1

I'm not much of an animator because I haven't done it enough, but every once in a while I'm forced to do it-either because I can't afford a real animator, or there's a scene that's just so intense and specific that I can't explain it in words to an animator, so I go ahead and do it myself. The problem is, every time I animate a secene, I have to learn all over again by trial and error. I never did come up with any formulas and techniques that I could lean on. I just always custom make the damn scenes.

Like the butt slapping scene above. I just had the whole scene dancing around in my noggin and went ahead and did it.

This scene of Yogi and The Ranger struggling over the gun was a nightmare to animate. It has a million levels and a bunch of combinations of cycles and re-use in it. The sheets are mind-boggling, about 2 pages wide.

I actually had a great animator working on Boo Boo Runs Wild. He's a filipino guy named Anthony Agrusa-maybe I'll put some of his scenes up in a later post. He animated really funny and super smooth dynamic stuff, and last I heard he's been sentenced to working on those prime time animation shows. You know the ones-the ones the huge budgets that have no animation in them.

This scene above is inspired by Ed Love's animation in the early Hanna Barbera cartoons. I'll come back and explain it later, but I'm gonna go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles now with the best voice talent in the world-Eric Bauza! Say hi to him in the comments. He reads this stuff every day.

BTW, you can thank Nico for making these clips for me, and there are more to come!

Keep checking back.

Here's the fight scene uncut. This fight is inspired by Ultimate Fighting, my favorite TV show. My friend Todd White has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and he consulted with me for all the actions in the scene. Ranger Smith has Yogi in his "guard position" a standard Jiu Jitsu defense made popular by Royce Gracie and used by all fighters now.

Cool! I have no idea what's going on with the story but I love the John K. take on classic characters. I think it'd be cool to see Spumco take on "The Flintstones" or something.

I mean, I prefer the slumber party girls and whatnot... but I'm just intrigued enough by this Yogi Bear stuff to want to see what else could be done with Hanna-Barbera. What they're doing now is amusing but starting to get a bit played out with the post-modern irony and the shoddy animation.

Someone else pointed this out before, but one thing Spumco does so well is timing. Like when there's little pauses before a character's reaction. Nothing is rushed. The jokes take their time, and it adds to everything. This was very obvious in the ass-spanking scene.

How do you decide the timing of those kind of scenes? Is it something thats determined while a scene is animated, or is it in post production that little pauses are added?

Thanks for the Boo Boo Runs Wild clips, John. Cartoon Network runs it late at night and I taped it. I really like this one because the animation and story are just great to watch. I always discover something new each time I watch it. Is Boo Boo Runs Wild going to be on the Lost Episodes DVD? I heard there was a Ranger Smith cartoon as well. I haven't seen that one but would like to. I also like the two Jetsons shorts Spumco did! Keep up the good work!

I had a blast working on those R&S Lost Episodes, and now that they are finally coming to DVD this summer, I'm even more stoked that you’ll get to see the season in it's entirety.

PLUS – John, Annmarie, and I had a hand in putting the DVD extras together so those should be fun to rummage through.

ALSO – you guys need to see Weird Al’s NEW Music Video that John directed!!! I got to see a sneak peek, and man-o-man it’s so good that I had to change my underpants twice (but I blame that partly on the Roscoe’s chicken n’ waffles).

Anyway – thanks for the shout-outs everybody!!! I gotta get back to work!Eric Bauza

i used to watch your yogi cartoons on adult swim's website but they took them down!!! do you think you could put them back up on youtube by any chance? the flash ones? they were amazing, i'd watch em when i got bored and i was on the computer and they were always funny!

Cool! I have no idea what's going on with the story but I love the John K. take on classic characters. I think it'd be cool to see Spumco take on "The Flintstones" or something.

A Spumco inspired Flitnstones movie was made, Flintstones On The Rocks. Oh, and John did some Jetsons flash cartoons, as Eric A pointed out.

>> Stimpy sounds better now then ever before. Oh, come on. Sure Eric did a great job but you have to admit Billy's take on the character was the definitive version becasue it was the first. Even though Eric styled his after Larry Fine and not Billy, Billy added his own stuff to the role that can't be ignored. I'm not pitting one verus another, I'm just saying give credit where credit is due, Joel.

LMFAO!!!!!...i'm not ashamed to say that i have more than a few layers of GUTT, and well... i BUSTED them all watchin' these clips!! LOL!!!... holy shit did these make my day!!! GREAT STUFF JOHN!!! :) :) :)

I love this cartoon! I've alwas loved your animations and it's awesome that Ed Benedict himself worked in layouts for this cartoon. It must've been great to work with a master. Royce Gracie's the best too. he's having another fight coming soon. just recently they showed some of his best fights on Spike.

just posting to see if eddie fitzgerald might read this. i know you're a friend of marshal vandruff, one of my close instructors, and i was wondering if you have any interesting in coming to speak on our campus. we've had jim smith once, and hopefully we'll get john, but i'd love to have you out (i loved the worm toon you did for the what-a-cartoon show i believe). email me at chrisallison32 AT hotmail.com and we'll chew the fat, by golly

I'm not a big fan of Ultimate Fighting, I like to watch fighters punch and kick each other while standing up, and that jiu jitsu folks always takes the fight to the ground, which totally kills it for me. Having said that, Yogi vs Ranger is great. My favorite part are the headbutt and when Yogi tries to find a breach to punch, while the Ranger turns his face back and forth quickly, trying to avoid the hit.

Jorge- thanks for the info on that Flintstones thing. But... I didn't compare anyone's voice to anyone else's. That was Kevin.

That's a can o' worms I wouldn't want to open.

On a side note- yeah, the UFC is pretty cool. I've got some friends who are bigtime into MMA. Pride, UFC, all of that stuff. One of my best friends forced me to watch this awesome docu about the Gracie family about 5 billion times.

Anyway, it makes me happy to see John K. talking that up and putting some Gracie jiu jitsu influence in his fighting animation.

That's cool to see exactly which scenes you animated. Did you do the dinner scene in Onward and Upwards or just the layout? That's probably one of my favorite scenes on all time. I remember when that episode aired and Shane Glines posted some screen shots of that scene with the caption "John Showing off again." Great stuff.

Booboo and the Man is still on the Adult Swim site:http://www.adultswim.com/clips/shorts/boo_boo/

So is the Jetsons Father and Son Day:http://www.adultswim.com/clips/shorts/father_son/

Tho I'm not sure how you'd find them from the main page. Best Son is missing as far as I can tell.

Hey if you go to http://www.adultswim.com/clips/and scroll far enough (209-216 of 259), there's something listed as the Ripping Friends pilot. It looks to be Indigestable Wad from the frame used as a thumbnail.So I guess they still have the rights...

John, I've been a fan since I grew up with Ren and Stimpy, and I just found this blog site. I want to commend you for all your fantastic work and tell you that you've inspired me to keep working on my "art." You're really just the guru when it comes to contour drawing and emotion and slapstick; it's crazy how cut-and-dry most media is these days. As some constructive criticism, I'd like to say that Ren looks kind of repulsive, which I suppose he always does, but in the nineties he was cuter and a bit more cartoony. Maybe thats what you were shooting for- he definately still has the amazing exaggerated movements and emotion. ANYWAY, keep up the good work John, I'm a huge fan and I'm gonna keep buying your stuff.

"Not much of an animator"....if you say so, haha. That looked mighty good to me. I never got to see these cartoons in their entirety, but I love how intense and crazy everything is in these clips. Also, is there really a "Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles" around there?I was wondering cos' in Dallas there's a "Big Mama's Chicken and Waffles". Anyway, love those scenes! Thanks for the captures, Nico!

It's just not fair!!!! Your having so much fun.I was in tears of laughter watching the fight scene at work this morning, while the boss was out. I was working on a very dry corporate interactive flash animation... I used to work for Hanna Barbera in Australia, started out as one of many million cell painters that they had squished in cupboards and underfloorboards.I eventaully graduated to inbetweener and worked with some fantastic animators.It's great to look at your site and be encouraged to keep going and get excited about animation again.Thanx

Jesus Mary & Joseph - this is such a gourmet piece of animation. The fight scene's perfection - for me - is in how the components of the fight are so like a fight in real life - the hesitation before a punch - the shaking with nervousness in the midst of violence - the slowness of strategy when Yogi protects his ear - the squooshing together instead of pushing apart. It all adds up to that friggin' je ne sais quois that comepls me to watch it over and over.......

I love that fight scene, it’s so intense. It’s almost not funny because it’s so intense, except that’s exactly why it is funny.

And the buttock slapping sequence, it’s like a condensed version of the overall sense I’ve always got from your cartoons… during the time I’m actually watching them, I’m under the spell and I’m completely convinced that cartoons are the ultimate and best art form there is and that you understand exactly why. And why don’t more people understand?

There is no possible way that sequence could be translated into any other medium.

Sadly, I've never seen Boo Boo Runs Wild in its entirety - despite Cartoon Network running it incessantly. I've seen plenty of clips but not that fighting scene. I laughed my ass off. Showed it to my wife and she did the same.

It doesn't hurt that we're both UFC fanatics.

Hey John, I'll go in halfsies with you on Hughes/Gracie.I'll bring some raw meat for us to gnaw on.

I noticed on Sundays for WEEKS they were playing the yyogi shorts on adult swim... does that mean there is a chance for more yogi's ? Are they testing the waters. Or are they just going to start running the real world after saved by the bell?

A little late, but I also just wanted to note how brilliant it was to use the vast library of Hanna-Barbera sound effects, especially making great use of them in the Yogi-Ranger fight scene. I find the HB sound fx usage almost just as hilarious as the animations themselves. The whistley sound during Yogi's headbutt is genius!